UK’s Food Standards Agency may be disbanded

The UK’s Department of Health yesterday insisted the country’s coalition government has yet to make a decision on the future of the Food Standards Agency.

Reports this weekend in the UK suggested that the agency, the country’s food watchdog, would be disbanded.

The FSA would see its functions move to the Department of Health and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Reuters said.

However, the Department of Health said “no decision had been taken with the FSA”, although it added: “All arms-length bodies will be subject for a review.”

A spokesperson for the FSA insisted she had “no idea” where the claims had come from and said: “It’s not from us.” She added it was “business as normal” at the agency today.

The future of the FSA, first set up in 2000 to oversee food safety in the UK, has been in question since the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition took office in May.

The coalition is looking to cut public spending in a bid to reduce the UK’s budget deficit, which stands at GBP165bn.

The FSA also has its detractors, who have claimed the agency has strayed too far from its original remit on food safety, into the wider field of diet and nutrition.

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